Post Track Maintenance
One of our favorite past times is tracking a car throughout the seasons. While the day of racing is a blast, the post track day clean-up is usually quite the process. For some it can be quite unnerving to see the post season damage created by the lack of protection and/or maintenance. So how do we protect our investments? And more importantly, how do we clean them?
What is it about the Track?
It's quite simple actually. It's pure exhilaration. Whether you own a supercar or a Miata, there is nothing more fun than pushing your vehicle and self to the limits. Let's get that build out there, and give it a good beating that it deserves.
Post Track Abuse
While you're doing 80+ mph around a track, your vehicle endures some really interesting filth. We see everything from melted rubber, splattered bugs, bird droppings, dead animals, and so much fallout. So when it comes time to doing a post race wash, it really can become quite the chore. So how do we tackle the heaviest of heavy? our process is includes good products, and proper washing techniques.
The Cleaning Process
Creating safe cleaning habits, will ensure that your paint surface is contaminant free and swirl/scratch free. Clean Lab uses a single bucket wash method opposed to a 3 bucket wash. Why? We believe that using multiple wash mitts, versus 3 buckets is a safer for your paint. No need introduce a mitt that was once dirty to a clean bucket of water. So we recommend having between 5-8 wash mitts per cleaning and starting top to bottom and discarding a mitt per panel.
Necessary supplies
- Pressure washer
- 5 gallon bucket w/ grit guard
- 5-8 Microfiber wash mitts
- Dawn Dish Soap
- Foam Cannon
- Silk Drying towels
- Ultra-soft detailing brushes
- Wheel Woolies
- leaf blower or hot-air dryer
Cleaning products
- Iron remover (fallout cleaner)
- All-purpose cleaner
- Wheel cleaner
- Tire cleaner
- Pre-wash foam shampoo
- Tar remover
- Degreaser
- Reset shampoo
- Glass cleaner
- Glass polish
- Tire shine
- Clay lube or quick detailer
- Medium clay bar
Now that we've covered the materials needs to continues let's get down to business. This easy system will allow for a great results. Remember always wash your vehicle on an overcast day or in a shaded area. This will prevent soap burn, or product fouling on a hot day.
Let's get Cleaning
- Using your pressure washer, a 25 or 40 degree nozzle and rinse all the heavy contaminant off the paint. This is your pre-rinse.
- Using your foam cannon fill with a the recommended dilute of soap to water. Foam your vehicle "bottom" to "top" this will allow maximized foam lifting. Let dwell for 2-3 minutes. Then rinse.
- Heavily apply tar remove to all paint surfaces, and let dwell for 3-5minutes. Then rinse.
- Apply tire cleaner to tires, let dwell 1-2minutes. Then rinse.
- Apply fallout cleaner to the paint, and apply wheel cleaner to wheels. Using a detailing brush gently massage wheel cleaner around the wheel. Then Rinse full vehicle this process should take between 4-5minutes.
- While the vehicle is still wet, use clay lubricant and a clay bar to remove any heavy leftover contaminant embedded into the paint. If you haven't used clay we recommend watching this video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB8UaTCXuLg
- Using your degreasing agent or diluted dawn soap spray the entire vehicle and let dwell for 3-7 minutes. This should remove any quick detailer or lubricant from the paint. Then rinse.
- Fill your 5 gallon bucket with warm water. Warm water will help remove any oils that are left over. Use 1 sponge per panel washing top to bottom.
- Towel dry your vehicle.
- Using your leave blower or air dryer blow down all your creases and mirror to remove any remaining water. This will prevent water spotting.
- Dress your tires with tire shine.
- Using glass polish pad, scrub glass until the product is nearly invisible. Then wipe to remove.
- Using glass cleaner, spray and clean glass to pull up any left over polish.
Boom your track car is clean. So let's talk about some protective options.
Ceramic Coatings, and Paint Protection Films... make life easier!
We can beat these options dead into the ground.... But really they are designed to make our lives that much easier when it comes to paint protection and cleaning. While ceramic coatings do not prevent the inevitable rock chips from road debris, paint protection film (ppf) does.
While this blog post isn't designed to drill the idea of ceramic coatings and paint protection film into your head, it should be in the back of your mind. If you have an investment in a track car, we strongly recommend looking into it. We here at Clean Lab have a plethora of paint protective solutions for all of your needs.
